Creativity and Failure

Here is a link to an article on the BBC website that has been flagged in both the UK Contemporary Quilt and SAQA yahoo discussion groups. BBC on creativity and failure . It is only a 5 minute read but makes the case that truly good outcomes don’t usually happen at the first attempt. How right that is! The article was written in response to a new exhibition in the US called Permission to Fail in which participants were asked to show all their mess ups and drafts. It makes the point that we are used to seeing the perfect end results and don’t get to see the work taken to get there.

That may have been the case prior to the advent of social media but is it the case now? I don’t think so. As artists we can each chose exactly what we show the world but many of us, myself included, now share our work in progress in our blogs. Personally I like sharing my techniques and my progress. Of course I only want to show my best work in exhibitions but ‘amongst friends’ I value the responses I get. So I’m going to keep on showing my mess ups!